Fox Away
by Kaligos
Summary: The CEO of the worlds most hated company is being threatened, and he turns to the ZPD's best for help. However helping him will go against everything that Nick and Judy have ever believed in.
1. Chapter 1

Nick felt smug. It was impossible not to, really. Every step brought looks like he was somehow profaning holy ground. Which he was, in a way. He took another photo of the crime scene and felt his tail swish in delight. He felt like a kit in a candy store. He knew he shouldn't it was a crime scene after all. A breaking and enter with a shattered window but it was the location of it all that made him so jovial.

The crime scene consisted of a smashed window, a brick put through it earlier in the night when no one had been around. There were distinct areas where the glass had been shifted from foot steps, so it was clearly a break and enter. There was also a pungent smell in the area, strong enough that Nick's eyes watered for a moment.

Handing back the camera, he left CSI to their work, and let them finish casing the front as he cheerfully went to meet up with Judy.

There was some part of him that wanted to jump outside in the rain and start singing. Dance his worries away for the day, because nothing could get him down. This felt like some part of divine justice. The crime wasn't even that serious, so honestly he felt like he had the right to celebrate. It was petty but he couldn't help but feel like this was a score for the little guy.

"Can you stop that?" Judy asked as she walked alongside her ecstatic partner. They were leaving the crime scene behind, and going to the lifts that would take them to the top of the illustrious office building.

The bunny was trying to figure out this case. Her thought was to rule out what this event hadn't been so that they could narrow it down to what it was. But, aside from the shattered window and the late night break in, there was nothing wrong. Nothing had been taken or tampered with.

"Nope, no way! Way too happy," Nick said, still radiating smug as the elevator door opened and the two stepped inside. He felt Judy roll her eyes. Judy pressed the button for the doors to be held closed before grabbing his tie and pulling him down.

"Wilde, we are cops. Get your head out of the clouds and work with me, you dumb fox!" Judy's eyes reflected some anger, but only because she felt like he wasn't respecting the badge nearly enough. Which, in this case, he wasn't. He had no idea why Bogo would assign them to this case. It was an insult to everyone involved, and he kind of loved it,

"You know, you are cute when you're mad." Judy huffed and then let out a noise that was (at least Nick was sure it was) as close to a growl as a bunny could make. She felt her foot tapping hard against the floor for a moment, angry and wanting to kick him. But, she released his tie and simply pressed the button for the top floor.

"Could you at least not piss off the guy that we are supposed to be helping?" Judy looked up at him, hopeful that she could make at least some headway in the case. This was practically misery to her, and she knew that Nick knew that.

"I think that went out the window the moment I entered the building, Carrots," he said, but seeing how this was all fraying on her nerves he figured he would have to try and put on his good face. Though he knew that if there was anything that would take him down a peg it was the conversation that he was about to have. The doors opened and, taking a deep breath, he walked out into the main hall.

"It was hard enough to actually have this opportunity to talk to him in person. Mr Bengal owns this company, but I've never even heard of him being in public before. This guy is so paranoid it's amazing he is willing to even talk to the police."

Nick wasn't paying any attention to Judy because that all too familiar logo painted on the ground reminded him both of why he was here and why this place totally deserved whatever happened to it. He nodded to the secretary, a pig, who regarded the fox with a look of disgust, not unlike every employee in the place. He had to wonder if it was something the they had trained in. Was it in the employee manual? They were all very good at it.

"We were told that Mr. Bengal wanted to see us?" Judy asked as she walked up to the desk. The pig rolled her eyes before clicking the intercom. She spoke to her boss before nodding to the cops wanting to see him.

The door opened and Nick's eyes widened. There was a moment of silence, and then he started to cackle like he was just let into the world's greatest joke. Which it was, it was a con worthy of the world. Not even on Wilde's best days could he have come up with a scam like this. He hadn't known, and the look on Judy's stunned face told him that she hadn't known either.

Mr Bengal was a fox. The owner and operator of Fox Away, was a _fox_. Nick's mind broke and the paradox that was left in it's wake had him resting his arm against Judy as he lost it completely. He had to use the smaller bunny as a walking stick because he would have fallen over if he hadn't used her for support. So it came as no surprise that he did fall over when she hit him hard in the ribs. Clearing her throat and taking a few steps towards the desk, Judy tried to give the fox a smile.

He was almost as tall as her, and just as grey. His ears were short, and he looked small. His thick fur was puffed from the humidity in the office caused by the rain pounding against the windows. His own smirk told Judy that he was just as amused by the oxymoron of running this company as Nick was. The man had the exact same sly look on his face as Nick's, and something told her that she was really going to miss her fox repellent for a moment. Maybe it was just the way his yellow eyes scaled every part of her or the look of his well tailored suit. He smelled of riches and evil.

Bengal pulled himself from the desk and stood up. Stretching out his paw to hers. "Ms. Hopps? Thank you for arriving as you did, I must say I am a huge fan."

Judy hesitated for a moment to take his paw. The claws he had didn't retract, and they looked like they had been sharpened at some point. Not that she felt this fox was dangerous. No she wouldn't allow herself to think like that anymore. She blinked when he said that he was a fan of hers. She had only been on the force for a year or so and had mostly been out of the limelight since the Night Howler case.

"Sorry, um, Mr. Bengal, but how so?"

Retracting his hand, Bengal walked to the other side of the room. After pouring himself a drink from a decanter, he turned back to Judy.

"Please, Ms. Hopps, call me Simon. And get your fox off the floor. As much as I appreciate his sense of humour, there comes a time when all laughter is grating."

Judy complied and gave Nick a slight kick to rouse him from the floor. The fox was now panting to catch his breath. As he stood he stopped to admire the office. It was a large, open space. The building was built to resemble a large tree built into the natural canopy of the rain-forest district. It was a large circle with the elevators in the middle. The office easily took up half the tree. The large glass windows were currently being pounded by rain, but on a dry day it would overlook almost all of the canopy, giving a large sweeping view of one of the nicest sectors in all of Zootopia.

"If you're wondering how I'm a fan, I caught your press conference a little over a year ago. My stocks tripled overnight. You and Bellwether were the best things that ever happened to my city." The look that Judy regarded him with was one of revilement, losing the professionalism she had been telling Nick to maintain.

"We wanted to ask about the break in. Could we focus on that, Simon?" Nick said, snapping to his senses. This conversation had just gotten a lot less interesting. He glowered down at the smaller fox, who didn't shrink under the gaze of the two cops.

The look Simon regarded the other fox with was dangerous. However, after a moment or two, he simply gave a shrug and let the tension fall out of him for the moment.

"There isn't much to tell, really. I have top of the line security installed in this building. We get hit once or twice a year with something like this. Angry foxes thinking that the price of a window will somehow hurt my bottom line. I do hope you find the vandal, but I'm afraid I won't be much of a help in that regard."

"Could we have a look at the security footage then? And perhaps a check around to make sure nothing was stolen?" Judy asked, her nose twitching for a moment.

"Not without a warrant for it, I'm afraid. As much as I enjoy the work you and the ZPD perform, I'd rather work to put this incident behind me. This building is mostly for public appearances, nothing of value is actually kept here. So even if something was stolen, it was likely unimportant."

Nick and Judy exchanged quick glances as Judy worked to take some notes. There was a ping at the desk, and the two looked around for a moment.

"Sorry, but that's the all the time I can afford you two for the day. Please feel free to take a free sample of one of Fox Away's many repellents on your way out. After all, you can never be too safe."

"Sweet cheese and crackers, what was that!? And did you really have to take that!?" Judy shouted as they walked out of the office building and into the canopy of the rain-forest district. Nick was admiring a small bottle of Fox Repellent. He had a newfound respect for the small pink bottle of paranoia. He placed it in a plastic baggy and shrugged.

"Never disregard a free sample, Carrots. As much as I hate this little bottle, it's rude not to take it, also it's evidence." Nick shrugged as he walked side by side with Judy back to their car through the rain, waiting till they got inside before they spoke again.

"What evidence, it's broken glass inside one of the cities most hated buildings, which we don't have a warrant to do a full search."

"Well he said that it was angry foxes, but none would be caught dead near this place and there were only two in the building all day. I'm not the best sniffer, but their was this thick aroma around the entrance."

As they sat back in the car listening to the rain, the two shared a look. A simple knowing glance that there was more to this picture, but that they didn't seem to have an in. It was frustrating to admit, but there was no case to build up. As much as Judy wanted to hit the ground running and maybe take the guy down a peg, there was nothing to investigate here, aside from someone being angry with one of the world's worst companies.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun rose over Savannah Central, bright and clear. The dawn of a new day showered light on a familiar scene. Another high rise office building, belonging to another high profile company, with another window pane shattered with, you guessed it, another brick sprayed with fox repellent.

And standing in the middle of it all was the same red fox. Nick stretched for a moment, then sipped his coffee, his shades on to protect him from the harsh Savannah sun.

"You know, I think someone is trying to send a message with all of this," he said, then brought a cloth to his mouth. Before, the rain and general dampness of the rain forest district had deluded the smell to the point where he could tolerate it.

This time he could barely breath without his eyes watering. The hot, stagnant air of the desert location had allowed the smell on the brick to fester. Whoever sprayed this thing must have practically soaked it. Even without any additional sources, the smell was overpowering.

"So, at this point I think it's safe to say that we have a serial vandal. This is the third protection company hit this week," Judy said, her own nose twitching as she spoke. Her sense of smell was much weaker than her partners, but even she had to hold her breath as she analyzed the crime scene.

Fox Away had been the first hit. A day later it had been Rhino-Guard, which was known for manufacturing modern body armor. The same company was responsible for Judy's custom fit ballistic vest. The third and final hit was Python Arms, the company that owned the tranquilizer guns and ammo that the police preferred.

Together, the three companies had a monopoly on almost every weapon that was bought and sold legally in Zootopia. Of course they would have enemies. And yet, these were all head quarters, not manufacturing plants. Nothing had even been stolen, so it wasn't like whoever was doing this was making an impact.

Walking outside of the crime scene, Judy stepped into the heat and sunlight. She gasped for air, her eyes watering. "No wonder they had to shut this place down for the day."

Nick nodded. He had been keeping his distance since they started the investigation, mostly because he didn't want to get any of that stuff on his fur or have to deal with the smell. He took a step away from Judy as she came closer, nose wrinkling at the stench still lingering on her fur.

"Fox Away I get. I'm no fan of that one, but why these other two? They have almost nothing in common in terms of business practices. Rhino-Guard is strictly defensive, and Python… well, yeah, I guess they have a few repellents out there, but their main income are tranquilizers and dealing with civil contracts."

Judy's ears rose as she regarded her partner for a moment.

"I've been doing homework ever since the second hit. Trying to see if there was a connection, and who might be next. I'm not seeing it though."

Honestly the two of them were beat cops. While this was the third vandalism call with similarities, both of the other companies had brushed it off, and there was a good chance that Python would do the same.

"We could always check the traffic cams. See if we get our vandal this time around?" Nick gave an uncaring shrug. This case was more annoying to him than anything else. He didn't mind a company getting hit once and awhile, but he felt more like this was just petty. It wasn't going to shut anyone down in the long run.

As great as big brother was he hadn't caught the perp the first two times. It was likely that whoever was doing this was staking out their targets, checking to see if they could get caught when they attacked the headquarters. It had been handled with such care that Judy had originally proposed that it was some sort of trial run. That the next time the mammal in question struck it would be to do some sort of actual damage.

"For now, we're not finding anything new... Maybe we should dig a little more into the companies, see if they _do_ have anything in common beyond personal protection items." It would help to narrow down if there was going to be a fourth hit. They left it to the CSI team and turned to go back to the precinct. Maybe the city databases would turn up something.

It was a lot of work for a broken window and a smelly brick. An hour later Nick was already fed up. Kicking off his desk, the fox rolled across the office in his computer chair, throwing his hands up in annoyance. "This is boring, fluff! It's never not going to be boring, either."

Judy just rolled her eyes at him. Like she didn't already know that. "It's our job Nick."

"No, it's our job to serve and protect animals. Last I checked, windows didn't have rights."

"Three bricks in three days, each treated with fox repellent, and each time the camera's see nothing. It's careful, it's set up and the targets were all companies that profit from violence in some way. You don't think that's the least bit interesting?" Judy said with a soft smirk, her violet eyes looking up at her fox.

Nick brought his paws down and mulled on it, scratching his chin for a long moment and feeling unsatisfied with it. She was right. When you look at the facts of the case, and ignore the fact that it was vandalism, and...

He paused, then quickly brought his chair back to his desk. He spent a moment looking something up. "Hey fluff.. who gave the call?"

"Uhm... The morning staff."

Nick chewed on his pencil for a moment before dropping it back to his desk. "If I went outside and smashed one of our windows with a brick, what would happen?"

"Well it would probably come out of your salary for one, and two the alarm would..." Judy trailed off as she connected the dots.

Nick summed it up for her, mostly to organize his own thoughts.

"Three top security companies in the city, and none of them had their own response teams. No silent alarms, no automatic police summons. Just a secretary who walked in come morning and called us." The two of them went silent for a moment looking at one another.

"Sweet cheese and crackers! That's..." Judy shivered for a moment as she tried to think of the ramifications of that conclusion. They could turn off the alarms? If so, how? _Why?_

"Once we could pass off as someone forgot to set the alarm before they left, but three times? _And_ no one is pressing charges?" Leaning back into his chair, Nick just shook his head for a moment, trying not to think about it too much. He had no idea what that would even mean. "The real question is what are they after?"

It was late at night, and an old fox was sitting at his desk overlooking the rainforest. The sun had gone down hours ago, but Simon was still hard at work. The skype call had run late, but he didn't have anywhere else to go. He was content to sit and let the meeting play out.

"I think it's pretty clear that we're the targets. All of the bricks were covered in fox repellent," a voice spoke out.

Simon was quick to respond. "A bottle of repellent that I can sell for 12.99 is hardly proof of a threat against us. Most mammals don't even care about animals like us. How many even bother to visit the 'about us' section on our company's' web pages? How many actually care to look up who works on the boards of directors on companies like ours?" As Simon sat back in his chair, he was glad that they didn't work with cameras in these calls. It wouldn't do to let his associates see the stress ball he was currently crushing in his paws.

"Any luck finding out what killed our silent alarms?" A second voice asked. The silence seemed to stretch on.

Finally, the first voice answered. "From what we can tell, a small blackout that lasted for three minutes during the night. Enough time to enter any building in the city. If it was a test run, they picked their targets well. The fox spray was probably used as a scent blocker."

"A blackout device?" Simon's surprised exclamation was met with a scoff.

"EMP's on that scale are a thing of fiction. Turning off a phone is one thing, but shutting down an entire building without affecting the street camera's outside? Most likely were looking at something internal. We should look into employees who have worked at all three companies," the second voice interjected.

"It's a short list. I will have it for you tomorrow," the first voice replied.

"What about the cops? We got that fox, and bunny duo. Rick and Pouty? What do we do with them?" asked the second voice.

"Nothing, it's just a few broken windows. They were likely given the case to keep them out of the way of the real cops. Only an idiot would take that kind of job seriously… or mammals who are way into their jobs." Simon chuckled. If there was one thing he could count on, that the fox and rabbit combo would be kept out of their fur. Whoever had done this had given them all one advantage, and that was that the crime was so mundane that it was boring. The matter of the alarms would be handled internally, and if he did find that there was more to this plot than met the eyes… well, he wouldn't be taking it to the ZPD. That was certain.

Simon stood up and stretched. Deciding he wanted nothing more to do with this day, he ended the call as quickly as manners would allow, then shutdown his computer. With a sigh, he turned away from his desk. After a moment spent admiring the night sky through his floor to ceiling windows, he walked out of his office.

Just because he wasn't afraid didn't mean he was stupid. Until this matter was settled he was going to have his security team close to him. As soon as he was through his office door, he met with two boars. The meeting he had just been in was well above their paygrade, so they had been left standing at the only entrance into his office. Nothing was said as he walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby, the two guards quickly taking up positions in the back corners.

Just before they made it to the bottom floor, the elevator jerked to a stop, the lights flickering. For a few terrifying seconds, they were plunged into darkness. After a moment, the lights came back on, and the elevator resumed. Simon looked at the security guards and took a step back, making it clear that they would be getting out first. When the doors of the elevator opened the two boars had their tasers in hand, ready to attack whoever was on the outside. Simon was half expecting another brick and another broken window.

What they didn't expect was an arrow. It planted itself firmly into one of the boar guard's shoulder, knocking him back and whipping his arm wildly with the force of the hit. His armed taser went off, the barbs striking the other guard and they both went down. One in a convulsing heap, the other struggling with his non-lethal, but very painful wound. Simon was left alone in the presence of a mammal that looked like they had walked out of some modern fairytale.

"That's… new." Simon to his credit didn't have many words for this situation. He stepped over the two body guards and took a deep breath as the other drew back a second arrow. "If it weren't for the fact that you were pointing a bow at me, I'd have quite the number of job opportunities for you."

The other mammal had taken great care in not showing who they were. The lobby was dark, and Simon could only smell the wet rain coming off them, the scent of blood obscured the majority of his nose. His strange guest was wearing green, but had used a hood to obscure their face and gender. He couldn't even tell the species of the attacker. When they spoke their voice was modulated with one of those echo chamber toys you could pick up for 10 bucks. "Simon Bengal, you have two days to make a choice."

Before Simon could come up with a witty reply the green-clad stranger loosed the arrow. The arrow buried itself deep into his shoulder, knocking him back into the elevator, where he landed on his back. For a moment all he could do was look at the shaft sticking out of him with complete disbelief. Eventually, he managed to tear his eyes away, looking for his attacker. When he did, he found himself alone with his disabled guards.

The fox managed to stand, and walk into the lobby, gingerly clutching his wounded shoulder. Thankfully, the other really was gone. Which was good, because the pain was quickly becoming unbearable. The hole in his arm burned like a bitch. As his nose and eyes began to water, Simon realized the arrow had been soaked in something. He had been exposed to his own company's repellant enough times to know when he was choking on it. It was going to make the call to the hospital all the more awkward.


End file.
